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Scholastic Education and Biblical Interpretation, 



AN 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 



AT THE OPENING OF THE 



TROY UNIVERSITY, 



SEPTEMBER 9, 1858. 



BY JAMES STRONG, S. T. D., 

Vice President and Professor of Biblical Literature in the Troy University. 



TROY, N. Y.: 

WILLIAM H. YOUNG, 216 RIVER STREET. 
1859. 



**f t 



1 



choJastic Education and Biblical Interpretation. 



AN" 



AT THE OPENING OF THE 



TROY UNIVERSITY, 



SEPTEMBER 9, 1858. 



BY JAMES STRONG, S. T. D., 

Vice President and Professor of Biblical Literature in the Troy University.- 



—**3>-*-^— o-^»— 



:- 



$ TROY, N. Y.: 
William h. young, 216 river street. 
1859. 



<h^ 



I 



Inaupnil QUitss* 



Ix consequence of the recent absence of De. M'Clix- 
tock in Europe, it has devolved upon me, at short 
notice, to preface by a formal introduction the opening 
of these halls for academic instruction. It would ill 
become me, called in at the eleventh hour, yet receiving 
first in order an equal honor with others who have 
borne the heat and burden of the day of preliminary 
effort, were I to enlarge in eulogy or gratulation upon 
the enterprise this day so hopefully inaugurated, — the 
success of which is indeed so nearly secured. It may 
justly be said, that others have labored and I have 
entered into the fruit of their labors. Nor would the 
lateness of my connection with the scheme of education 
proposed in the founding of the Troy University, war- 
rant my undertaking to set forth at length the aims, 
plans and prospects of an institution with which I have 
so suddenly and unexpectedly found myself associated.! 



* The author deems it due tohis readers to remind them that this address was not 
properly an Inaugural to the Professorship 'which he holds, hut was designed merely 
to fill a place (properly helonging to the President, and up to a late period in the 
arrangements assigned to another person,) in the general literary exercises incident 
to the occasion upon which it was delivered, and that its subject — the trite one of 
education — was prescribed by the circumstances of that occasion. In committing it 
to the press — at this distance of time from its delivery, in pursuance of the request 
of the Trustees, coupling it with the Inaugural Addresses of his associates, the 
author therefore presents it in the same form — hastily executed as it then necessarily 
was. with only a few verbal alterations, and the addition of a few notes. 

f For these the reader is referred to the "Annual Announcement," issued in a 
pamphlet form, by the Trustees of the University. The subject will recur in the 
course of this address. 



All that I can presume or be expected to do, in dis- 
charge of my present duty, is to join in the common 
gladness of the hour, and offer a few practical sugges- 
tions, or rather sentiments, which its occurrence has 
called forth in my own mind, but which are neverthe- 
less based upon convictions that have been for years 
ripening in my judgment. 

Education is a term of wide import. Overpassing 
the limits of its original application, which refers sim- 
ply to the nurture of the child through youth up to 
adult years, but never losing its etymological signifi- 
cance, the leading forth of something within, it has 
come to designate the training of the mental faculties, 
especially of youth, to full development, and, as subsi- 
diary to this, the furnishing of the mind with the 
elementary facts of science and materials of thought. 
This process of discipline may be carried on under 
varied circumstances, and the requisite knowledge may 
be imparted by different instrumentalities as well as 
drawn from different sources ; while both the result 
and the method may vary, according to the extent and 
thoroughness in any given case. Hence arise what are 
usually termed the several kinds of education. But it 
should be noted that under whatever form, education is 
in itself always one and the same, namely, the prepara- 
tion of the mind by the requisite information and habits 
of thought, for the pursuit in view, and only differs in 
its direction, degree and mode of attainment. Setting 
aside, as inappropriate to the present connection, the 
first two of these elements of variation, all the modern 
educational schemes or methods may be resolved into 
two, the scholastic and the practical ; in other words, 
education in a school, before entering the contemplated 
sphere, of life, and education by the practice of the 
actual duties of that vocation. 




Each, of these modes seems to possess such peculiar 
and exclusive advantages, that their respective claims 
have often been set in array against one another. An 
active jealousy has even been evinced at times by the 
uneducated in schools towards the scholastically edu- 
cated, which has not unfrequently been reciprocated 
by as decided a superciliousness of the lettered towards 
the unlettered. A tendency to the invidious distinction 
of caste has been engendered between the book-learned 
graduate from academic halls, and the farmer, mechanic 
or merchant, who has acquired his successful skill 
solely from his experience as a farmer's boy, apprentice 
or clerk. A sufficient cure of this mutual disaffection 
is not to be found in the catholic moral of the famous 
parable of Menenius Agrippa on the joart of the Roman 
patricians to the schismatic plebeians, which has its 
parallel in the Apostle's doctrine, that " the eye cannot 
say to the hand, ' I have no need of thee ;' nor again 
the head to the feet, ' I have no need of you.' " The 
admonition of interdependence, drawn from the daily 
application of abstruse science to useful inventions, 
does not adequately enforce the lesson of charity and 
esteem. A more fundamental insight into the relations 
of study to action, is requisite in order to bring their 
votaries into harmony. 

The just bond between these two elements — which 
indeed are no other than thought and execution, is 
clearly furnished in the foregoing definition of educa- 
tion itself. If this be truly a mental preparation for 
a certain course of life or sphere of activity, it must in 
every instance necessarily be acquired prior to the 
entrance upon the contemplated duties, or at least 
before they can be successfully discharged. The ques- 
tion is therefore reduced simply to this : What is the 
most efficient mode of obtaining this pre-requisite 
ability 1 Is it by a definite course of study, pursued 
under the direction of teachers, who have devoted 



6 

themselves specially to the several branches of knowl- 
edge required ; or is it by spontaneous, or at best, 
casually guided efforts to attain the truth, in a series 
of experiments, with but a dim perception of the result 
sought, and by instruction chiefly from the errors 
committed in the search 1 When the issue is seen in 
this light, the world at large has never hesitated to 
prefer the direct to the indirect method of tuition, for 
all purposes in which literary qualifications are invol- 
ved. In the former, the student is presented with the 
accumulated wisdom of the past, concentrated in text- 
books, applied and commented upon by oral teaching, 
and combined with every collateral aid, such as contin- 
uous prosecution in an institution expressly adapted to 
the purpose, the stimulus of association with others of 
like age, tastes and destination, and the thousand 
moulding and elevating influences of academic life ; 
Avhile in the latter case, he can usually do little more, 
in his comparatively isolated and unassisted gropings 
after knowledge, than avail himself of the dearly 
bought wit of experience, or the accidental rays of 
light which may ultimately reach him from the general 
literary radiance diffused through the community, but 
which, for the most part, are really derived after all, 
more or less directly, from those very beacons of 
science, whose immediate illumination he affects to 
contemn. 

I have little faith in the self-taught scholar, as such. 
Rarely, if ever, does he fail to betray a certain crudity 
and lack of balance in his mental equipment, when 
brought into competition with the thoroughly disci- 
plined graduate. His original talents and power may 
have been greater, but his more regularly trained fellow 
will nevertheless very generally outstrip him in the 
race for preferment, even in an ordinarily intelligent 
community. The supple athlete, fragile as may be his 
form, will yet fling to the dust his brawny antagonist, 



if devoid of the -kill that always masters force. The 
self-educated man is like the native crab-stock, which, 
although thrifty in its indigenous mould, was but a dwarf 
among its forest neighbors : and should it eventually 
stand amid the palace garden that may be formed 
around its site, and at length receive the careful pruning 
and cultivation of the horticulturist's hand, it will ever 
yield the same wild fruit of acrid taste. The school- 
bred man is like the improved variety, which, grafted 
in the nursery, although with an exotic scion, is sure 
to afford the luscious pome whithersoever transplanted. 
The truly educated man will always evince a superior 
mental culture, and wield a proportionately greater, or 
at least, more healthful influence. The parvenu is a 
character, common in the world of letters as in social 
life, and is marked by the same flashy traits. Xext to 
the sincere saint, the genuine scholar belongs to the 
only true aristocracy, the nobility of mind. Compari- 
sons of this kind are somewhat odious, and personal 
criticisms are apt to be invidious. I will therefore 
select a few examples by way of contrast in this par- 
ticular, which are sufficiently removed from our own 
age and connections to preclude prejudice, and yet are 
so well known as to afford a clear illustration.* 

*I might have interposed, as an argumentum ad hominem, the direct appeal, Of 
"what use is it to build colleges and schools, if men may he more effectually trained 
(whether in more or less time is of comparatively little account,) for the duties of 
life "without them ? On this theory, such institutions are a positive injury, by 
dwarfing and stultifying the native faculties of the mind, and modern civilization 
is entirely wrong in encouraging them. 

It is freely conceded that some men — here and there one — have risen to great social 
and even intellectual eminence without these helps, hut this is rather an argument 
for than against their adoption ; inasmuch as these have been instauces of rare 
natural mental vigor, adduced precisely to show what may be accomplished in de- 
spite, and not by the aid of circumsiances. If uneducated men, generally, were equal 
or superior to the educated, in knowledge, menial ability and influence, the detract- 
01 sof scholasticism wouid have a fair plea ; but no one pretends that this is true. 
Such isolated cases, therefore, merely sustain the importance of scholarly training. 
Exceplio probat regulam. On the other hand, who can doubt that even these indi- 
viduals, had they possessed the advantages of early and thorough education, would 
have been still greater and more useful in their generation ? Unquestionably none 
lamented more than themselves, that they had to mate their way through life in 
the face of these disadvantages. If a few have succeeded thus in scaling the heights 
of fame, ihey are indeed deserving of double honor, not because they voluntarily 



Cicero's epithet of " novus homo," applied to himself,, 
refers rather to political than literary antecedents ; yet 
the fulsome egotism and turgid verbosity, that strike 
the school-boy reader of his forensic compositions, are 
characteristic of the upstart commoner ; although the 
acumen, profundity, learning and justness of his philo- 
sophical writings, bear the evident impress of his 
Greek instructors and Attic studies. Athens was then 
the university of the world ; and thither flocked the 
aspirants to fame in letters, to catch the inspiration of 
the mighty intellects of former ages, and to commune 
with the celebrities of their own day. I shall here 
introduce but two of her prominent masters of philoso- 
phy, whose juxtaposition in time and circumstances, 
yet diversity of preparation and career, affords a toler- 
ably fair instance of the contrast which I wish to bring, 
out. It must be premised, however, that the adage, 
"Knowledge is power," is so strictly true, and so 
universally has the teacher been indispensable to its 
impartation, that no eminent character appears in 
history, who has not been more or less assisted in 
gaining his renown by scholasticism, either in his own 
person or among his associates. A strictly illiterate 
or untutored mind is necessarily incompetent to acquire 
or exercise dominion over others. All the examples 
which I propose to notice will therefore be found to 
exihibit somewhat of this indispensable element, and 
my object will be to show, that the extent and perman- 
ence of their influence have been mostly in proportion 
to the compass and thoroughness of their own early 
mental training, in whatever form of schools their times 
afforded. 

The son of obscure parents, his father a statuary, and 
his mother a midwife, residents of a little borough near 

dispensed with the aids of discipline and science, but "because they were providen- 
tially deprived of them. Ordinary mortals will be sure to rue the experiment, if 
they presume to cast away the levers without which intellectual giants have 
occasionally moved the world. 



9 

Athens, Socrates, soon after his father's death, being 
defrauded of his little patrimony by his guardian, found 
himself cast destitute upon the world, while yet a 
youth, and compelled to engage in mechanical and even 
menial employments for a subsistence. TTithout the 
advantage of a liberal education or the means of secur- 
ing the tuition of the eminent teachers who already 
began to abound in the metropolis, yet burning with 
an innate thirst for knowledge, he was forced to avail 
himself of such casual helps, or rather hints, as his 
humble avocation there allowed, probably confined at 
first to the public means of instruction ; till, gradually 
attracted into those literary circles for which his tastes 
and aspirations were preparing him, he at length in his 
manhood derived some intellectual development and 
guidance from occasional intercourse with the leading 
philosophers of the city. In mature life began his 
public mission of recalling the Greek mind from the 
skeptical abstractions of the sophists to the common- 
seiise principles of scientific and moral truth, by his 
peculiar method of appeal to the personal consciousness 
and practical judgment of his listeners. He had him- 
self passed through a varied outward experience and a 
severe course of inward discipline. He had always 
struggled with the bonds of penury, and was still poor ; 
yet he had given his services to his country, and had. 
won honors on the battle field. In addition to his 
intellectual efforts, he had contended with a naturally 
violent temper, and had gained so complete a mastery 
over himself as to be able to live peaceably with the 
termagant whom he expressly married in order to prac- 
tice patience. And now we find him engaged, not in 
formal lectures nor written treatises, but in insidious 
cruestions put to the artisan, the laborer, the stranger 
along the street, first gaining their assent to evident 
propositions, and thence leading them to the admission 
of new and important conclusions. The passengers 



10 

jest at his uncouth figure, the bystanders remark upon 
his homely physiognomy, the populace laugh at his 
odd queries, his auditors look puzzled at his strange 
observations, as he turns kindly but abruptly away, 
and seeks another knot of hearers. Soon his person 
is ridiculed upon the stage, his philosophy is attacked 
by poet and dialectician, and eventually the cry of 
heresy is raised against his doctrine. Malicious poli- 
ticians plot his destruction, and he dies magnanim- 
ously refusing the questionable expedients of his friends 
for his safety. Has he succeeded or failed in his under- 
taking ? The sequel proves that he awakened a more 
earnest spirit of inquiry into the grounds of human 
belief; but he developed no new system, scarcely any 
new theory; and but for the prosecution of his work 
by others by a different method, his labor had proved 
abortive, the movement which he set on foot had died 
with him. This was because he founded no school, and 
left no organized institution. His want of early scho- 
lastic methods rendered him incompetent as well as 
indisposed to combine into a consistent and complete 
form the bold and profoundly true views which his 
powerful genius enabled him to take of the relations 
of men and things, and his isolated or rather fragment- 
ary habits of instruction neither afforded him occasion 
to construct the details and fill up the chasms in his 
scheme of philosophy, nor his pupils the opportunity 
to concentrate his scattered teachings in their own 
minds, or around any external nucleus. He engendered 
the spirit of scholarship ; but he was not the parent of 
its body. 

Among the many Athenian youths who hung upon 
the lips of this original but unpolished thinker, was 
one known even in that extreme democracy as born of 
aristocratic blood ; a descendant on his father's side of 
Codrus, the Attic Washington, and on his mother's of 
Solon, the Attic Moses. Carefully instructed from his 



11 

earliest years iu grammar, music and gymnastics by 
the most distinguished teachers of his time, he is said, 
while yet a youth, to have contended with success at 
the Isthmian and other games, and to have made no 
mean attempts in various styles of poetry ; but the 
philosophical powers which eventually rendered the 
Dame of Plato famous, although his mind had already 
received some bent in that direction from the writings 
and personal instructions of several eminent philoso- 
phers, were comparatively latent till, in his twentieth 
year, he came under the powerfully formative influence 
of Socrates' teaching, whose constant disciple he- 
remained till the death of his master, and of whose 
doctrines his own writings are the fullest exponent. 
But for this tuition, it may safely be asserted, Platon- 
ism had never existed ; a system which, more than any 
other mere human philosophy, is akin with the pure 
truth of Christianity by reason of its exalted views of 
the spiritual. Those sentiments for which Socrates 
might well claim inspiration, found in the scholastically 
trained Plato a competent prophet, and in the Academy 
which the latter founded an institution for their perpe- 
tuity and dissemination. The martyred soul of the 
teacher reappeared in the person of his disciple, and 
the transmigration was in the ascending scale. 

My position, the superiority of school-bred over 
untutored intellect, even in swaying the popular masses, 
as well as in permanent influence upon the world,* is 
equally illustrated in the contrastive history presented 
in the Acts of the Apostles between the career of the 
unlettered fisherman of Galilee among the Jews, and 

* Out of a recent list of forty-four names (many of them" eminent in some depart- 
ment of literature) of persons whose biographies are adduced for the praiseworthy 
object of stimulating the exertions of students in embarrassed circumstances, 
("Self-taught Men," by B. B. Edwards, 1S59,) scarcely more than six, (namely, 
Heyne, Samuel Lee, Thomas Scott, Niebubr, Adam Clarke, and Sir William Jones,) 
are properly entitled to rank as scholars, and even these, (with perhaps a single 
exception, Dr. Clarke,', received material advantages from early attendance at school, 
and were largely indebted to private tuition for their subsequent proficiency. 



12 

the mission of the pupil of Gamaliel among the Gen- 
tiles. For aught we know, both possessed equal natural 
genius. In bodily vigor the former appears to have 
had the advantage. Each, we know, had an ardent 
energetic temperament, and both were alike endowed 
with supernatural qualifications ; yet the one has left 
his broad and deep imprint on the whole circle of 
theological truth, as well as ecclesiastical enterprise, 
while the other, after the few initiatory measures which 
his priority in the field of action enabled him to 
achieve, is scarcely known as prominent in the re- 
ligious scheme into which his name enters, save in the 
prelatical assumptions of Papal tradition. Here is a 
lesson strikingly in point for those who unfavorably 
compare the power for usefulness in the church, of 
collegiate alumni with the practical effectiveness of 
self-made men so called. If the rough Peter was em- 
blematical of the " rock" upon which Christ founded 
his ecclesiastical edifice, in granting him the distinc- 
tion of admitting the first members within its pales ; 
yet his influence was soon cast into the shade by that 
of the " chosen vessel," Paul, whose studiously culti- 
vated and well informed judgment gave him, from the 
hour of his conversion, a deeper insight into the mys- 
teries of the Gospel than the whole college of " those 
who seemed to be pillars" appear to have attained 
beside. The dozen phylarchs of Christianity had not 
been complete without the thirteenth, as if the Master 
had remedied an essential defect by a supplement " born 
out of due time." 

A third instance of scholastic as contrasted with 
experimental preparation for the higher pursuits of 
life, drawn from "the comparatively modern history of 
moral enterprises, must suffice in addition to the fore- 
going parallels from profane and sacred antiquity. 
About the middle of the seventeenth century, George 
Fox, the son of a weaver of Leicestershire, began to 



13 

preach in England his peculiar doctrine of the suffi- 
ciency of the Holy Spirit, irrespective of the human 
appliances and qualifications ordinarily deemed essen- 
tial for the enlightenment of the mind, in order both 
to private piety and ministerial usefulness. Brought 
up himself with little education as a shoemaker and 
afterwards a grazier, when the light of a personal 
experience of religion burst upon his soul, it also 
revealed to him the darkness of immorality, ungod- 
liness and infidelity, that rested like a pall over his 
countrymen ; and in his new-born zeal he conceived 
himself to be divinely commissioned to rebuke the 
errors and vices of the times. This fanatical tenet led 
him not only to contemn all accessories to the inward 
illumination, but also to utter his message in a dog- 
matic tone, which brought upon him the -opposition of 
the learned as Avell as the hostility of the dissolute, 
both of whom he equally defied. But the age really 
stood in great need of reform, and this element of 
truth, with the aid that always accrues from persecu- 
tion, gave him a power for the time that ensured a 
large measure of succession both sides of the Atlantic. 
The doctrinal system, however, if such it can be called, 
which he bequeathed to his followers, partook of the 
vague and enthusiastic character of his own. undisci- 
plined mind, and it has, therefore, been found inade- 
quate to hold together its own adherents. That party 
which retains its original spirit has lost the aggressive- 
ness that indeed the circumstances of the times at first 
alone excited ; the other has either degenerated into a 
negative free-thinking akin to downright infidelity, or 
abandoned its communion for some more tangible form 
of faith. Neither branch of which the body of Friends 
now consists exerts any sensible influence upon the 
religious world without ; and the close of the present 
century will record its virtual disappearance among 
the sects of Christendom. The plant was originally 



14 

one of generous stock and vital vigor, but it has 
eschewed that scholastic culture which should not only 
have preceded its implantation, but all along have 
refreshed and supplied the soil with the elements of 
growth ; and now its withering trurik shows that it has 
taken »o firm root in the ground of humanity, and its 
fruitless boughs convict it of departure from the es- 
tablished conditions of the divine blessing. So must 
any church inevitably succumb at length to the insid- 
ious foe, if it neglect to rear about it the bulwarks 
of science, and to station the sentinels of intelligence ; 
though its citadel were garrisoned by angels and armed 
from the arsenal of Heaven. 

It was nearly a hundred years after the rise of Quak- 
erism that the same religious demands of the times 
which had induced that reform, recovered sufficiently 
from its ill-advised measures to reassert themselves in 
the person of John Wesley, the son of a rector of the 
Established Church, but whose ancestral history shows 
that Nonconformity ran in his veins. Reared amid the 
maternal, and, I may say, model family school at Ep- 
worth, and afterwards at the University of Oxford, he 
was distinguished in his early manhood for his accu- 
rate scholarship and mental culture. His writings bear 
ample testimony to his fondness for strictly literary 
pursuits, and his voice and efforts were ever and earn- 
estly in favor of scholastic education. Shame on the 
few degenerates of our day who call him father, and 
yet disparage those schemes of ministerial education 
which none more gladly hailed than he. The religious 
movement of which he was confessedly the master 
spirit, to say nothing in this place of its theological or. 
ecclesiastical features, undoubtedly owes its perma- 
nence and wide extent to the thorough and well digested 
organization which his mental habits, systematized 
especially by long and earnest scholastic discipline, 
enabled him to strike out and impress upon it. It is 



15 

chiefly because Methodism so closely resembles the 
* subordination and exactitude of a school, that it has 
been so efficient and enduring. Much of this merit, no 
doubt, is due to the liturgical training of the Anglican 
Episcopacy, to the broad Evangelism of the independ- 
ent churches, to the Quaker-like simplicity of the Mo- 
ravian societies, from all of which various elements 
both of its forms and principles were borrowed ; but 
no other than a true scholar would have combined and 
adjusted these materials without fanatical heresy or 
superstitious fanaticism. Nothing but a mind balanced 
by severe- study and freighted with the wisdom of the 
past, could have saved him from shipwreck amid the 
excitements of his unparalleled career and the giddi- 
ness of his unbounded popularity ; but the chart of 
history and science was spread out before him, and 
with a skill earned by patient investigation of former 
voyages, he guided his bark safely through the untried 
strait into a new religious association. While we 
ascribe to a higher Providence the success of the experi- 
ment, we should not fail to recognise the fitness of the 
instrument by which the result was secured. Let me 
add, if Methodism would be safe from the doom of 
Quakerism, let her cleave to the scholastic policy that 
distinguished her founder. 

I have not time for more illustrations of the view 
which I am presenting, although they might be gather- 
ed from almost every page of history.* These are 

* Should any reader be still inclined to question the correctness of the declarations 
of the indisponsableness of scholastic training, in this address, without further quali- 
fication, he is requested especially to bear in mind two points : First, the great im- 
portance of contact, particularly in youih, with superior minds, not only for the 
sake of the mental and moral stimulus thereby received, and the communications 
imparted, but abo\e all, the guiding, modifying and controlling influences thus, 
directly, opportunely and continually exerted. Books, however excellent, are no. 
adequate substitute for the living tutor; they are passive and come only when. 
hidden; he is active and spontaneously interposes to preserve the pupil from erroj. 
The more original and earnest the student, the greater is the danger of his eccen- 
tricity, without a teacher; and it will accordingly be found that those individuals 
who have reached iu after j ears the gicatost eminence in literature, but whote 



16 

sufficient for an induction of the general principle, 
which indeed few would be so hardy as formally to • 
deny, that a regular education in a school adapted to 
the purpose gives a great advantage as a preparation 
for any pursuit in which the mind is chiefly concerned, 
either as the subject or object. This is manifestly the 
case with regard to the occupation of teaching, whether 
from the school-desk, the professor's chair, the rostrum, 
the pulpit, or the press ; and it is scarcely less evident 
with respect to the other learned professions, techni- 
cally so called, of law, medicine, theology and philoso- 
phy. That it is not so essential to success in commerce, 
manufactures and agriculture, may readily be conceded ; 
and yet it is highly important even in these associa- 
tions that one be well informed before entering upon 
them concerning the sciences and arts, which have so 
largely contributed in modern times to their expansion 
and utility. In short, (for I must not prolong this dis- 
cussion,) while a scholastic education is desirable for a 
person in any sphere of life, not only for the satisfac- 
tion and positive pleasure which the mental discipline 
and stores of knowledge thus acquired are sure to 
afford him, but also as a means of enlarging the scope 
of. his influence, and adding finish to his whole charac- 
ter ; it is almost indispensable to every one who aspires 
to sway his fellow men and mould the generations to 
come. The very husbandman, mechanic or merchant 
is himself compelled to pass through a long term of 
preparation, practical, it is true, but yet a process of 

early studies were pursued in the absence of such superintendence, present the most 
noted examples of egregious aberration from sober science, or one-sided whims in 
some important particular. Secondly, it is not claimed that the kind of literary 
pupilage here advocated is essential to success, in every walk of life, nor equally 
indispensable even in every department of science. Many have attained great 
usefulness in society, and some have risen to prominent fame in letters, without 
its aid. It is asserted, however, that all such persons, when tried by the just standard 
of solid and well-balanced scholarship, exhibit, somewhere in their career, glaring 
defects or excesses, both of information and judgment; and especially lack that 
fine critical taste which long and thorough cultivation under an experienced eyo 
can alone developc into the intuitive certainty that may be called literary instinct. 



>* 



17 

learning, before lie is qualified to enter upon his busi- 
ness in his own name; his indentures are his matricu- 
lation. The apprentice or clerk is but another name 
for student, and the farm, shop or store is, to all in- 
tents and purposes, a school, differing only in form 
according to the particular end in view. But all these, 
before entering their special preliminary terms, have 
need of a more or less extensive course of general 
education in those branches of knowledge which are 
useful to all ranks, conditions and employments ; and 
they would be enabled to attain greater and more cer- 
tain eminence in their respective callings, could they 
have the further advantage of having passed through 
an agricultural, mechanical or commercial institute, 
and there received such a comprehensive and sys- 
tematic course of instruction in these departments as 
they are not likely to enjoy in the actual details of 
planting, building or trading, — which in any case 
will come in due time. And so too the lawyer, the 
physician or the clergyman, besides his collegiate 
studies, finds a benefit, or rather a necessity, in attend- 
ing the law school, the medical institute or the theo- 
logical seminary ; yet after all this, he expects to learn 
much from the actual duties of his chosen profession, 
in the court room, the sick chamber, or the pulpit and 
pastorate. Of late Normal Schools have in like man- 
ner been instituted for the special purpose of training 
instructors of youth in the best methods of tuition and 
government, still leaving, of course, the multitude of 
practical minutiae to their daily experience in the 
school-house and class-room. 

Let me not, then, be misunderstood. It will be per- 
ceived I have used the term " scholastic," not in the 
technical sense, as applied to the system of Aristotel- 
ianism devised by the schoolmen of the middle ages, 



18 

but merely as expressive of a school in the ordinary and 
proper acceptation of this word. I have explained 
how this mode of education is not at variance with the 
practical, nor intended to supersede it. Neither can 
be substituted for the other. The scholastic is de- 
manded prior to entrance upon the contemplated 
engagements in life, for the obvious and simple reason 
that the presence of these leaves little leisure or facility 
for abstract study, while the practical follows as the 
natural and necessary complement. The value of the 
former is even appreciated by those who for any cause 
have neglected it in early life ; all such, who have risen 
by the force of other talents to intellectual promotion, 
have regretted to their dying day their irreparable 
error or misfortune. On the other hand, I doubt if a 
single real subject of scholastic education can be found 
who would advise its omission as a preliminary to the 
other, where opportunity allowed its attainment. Be 
it remembered, the choice does not lie between the two 
modes ; the question is, shall the individual receive the 
scholastic first, and the practical afterwards ; or shall 
he accept the latter at once, and have it alone 1 The 
order is irreversible ; if he pass by the school when in 
youth, he will find that he has missed the golden oppor- 
tunity for life ; he cannot become a boy again. Cruel, 
therefore, is the well-meant, perhaps, but mistaken 
counsel sometimes given by older friends, urging the 
young man prematurely into the experimental duties of 
his proposed vocation, ere he has availed himself of the 
preliminary studies pertaining to it, with the fallacious 
assurance that he will be able afterwards to pick up the 
desired qualification, when erroneous habits have be- 
come fastened upon him. As well might the gardener 
hope to fertilize the soil after the field is sown, or 
while the grain is ripening. The tree grafted in its 
mature age with the buds of learning may yield a little 
precious fruit ; but it will never attain the fair luxu- 



19 

riance of the sapling graft, while the native shoots 
will continually betray the uncultivated stock.* 

*An objection frequently urged against a college course of education, that it 
tends— like a sort of Procrustean bed — to reduce all minds subject to it to a common 
standard, constitutes the chief argument in its favor, when viewed in the proper 
light. A " liberal" education differs from a professional one precisely in this — that 
the former is designed as a general culture of all the powers of the mind, by the 
pursuit of those branches of knowledge which long experience has shown to be 
the most useful as a discipline and the most important in a literary career ; w-hile 
the object of the latter is simply to train one or more of the mental faculties in a 
given direction, and to furnish the individual with the information needed in a 
special calling. The one eiubraces the whole sphere of knowledge, and seeks to 
expand the mind to a full-orbed completeness; the other comprises but a single 
segment of the circle of truth, and aims meiely at a one-sided improvement of 
certain natural abilities. Collegiate education, however, is not less practical than 
professional training, because less technical ; nor less utilitarian, because less mer- 
cenary : for the various branches of science and fields of activity are so contiguous 
and connected, that no one can be said to be well prepared in any one department 
without some degree of familiarity with all the rest. 

In any other sense than this, the objection here noticed is untrue, for a collegiate 
course has not and cannot be shown to have the slightest tendency to dwarf or crip- 
ple any of the native powers of the mind, but only to develop and discipline them 
all equally. It does not seek to clip the wings of fanc3', to weaken the grasp of 
reasoning, to dull the eye of observation, or bind the limbs of genius; but only to 
curb their eccentricities, correct their extravagancies, guard against their infirmities, 
and, more than all, to nurse into vigor these or other talents of the soul that may be 
dormant or feeble in any student. If, therefoie, the aptitude for any branch of 
learning — such as mathematics, (a frequent example., — be peculiarly weak in any 
given case — the efl'ect in almost every instance of want of culture, rather than of 
natural ability, (for to admit the total absence of this latter, were to acknowledge in 
bo far a real mental imbecility,) the true policy evidently is to cultivate the defec- 
tive habits of mind, as is done by the unbending requirements of the curriculum in 
college, not aggravate the deficiency by a disproportionate devotion to some more 
favorite pursuit, as in the partial course of a proiessional school. "If the edge be 
blunt, apply more strength" — in sharpening it. 

This argument exhibits the proper order and just relation of professional with re- 
spect to collegiate study. The regular academic course lays the only adequate and 
solid foundation for the special professioual course. I have never regarded it as 
necessary that every body should go to college, any more than that all persons should 
be lawyers, physicians, clergymen or literary philosophers. The common school 
is usually a sufficient college for the farmer, the mechanic and the tradesman ; and 
yet he who would rise to eminence in even these humble paths of usefulness would 
be mightily aided by a thorough academical preparation. But he w : ho would be 
something more than merely a calculating machine, a pettifogging barrister, a 
traveling drug-dealer, or a beneficed homilectician, must gain a broader mental 
scope and acquire a more extensive intellectual furniture than can be obtained 
merely in the scientific, law, medical or divinity school. These have an important 
office in fitting him for his chosen avocation as a citizen and to earn an honorable 
position among his fellows ; but he needs before, beyond and above any of them a 
culture as a man, and to bring out in all its lineaments the intellectual image of his 
Maker within him. If the youth, having passed through his collegiate studies, hae 
thus proved that he possesses a special talent in any one of these or other literary 
.fields, he is then better prepared to enter and prosecute it without embarrassment 
from want of acquaintance with kindred subjects, without the liability to a mistake 



20 

Education, of course, cannot create talent, any more 
than a title can confer brains. If the man originally 
possessed no natural capacity, he will remain equally a 
blockhead, whether he have passed through a univer- 
sity or a workshop. It would be well if fond parents 
would sometimes remember the proverb about making 
a whistle out of a certain unmusical material. Schools 
ought not to bear all the odium if they, in common 
with other institutions of society, have occasionally 
turned out a dunce ; a part of the blame should be laid 
upon Dame Nature, or somebody nearer home. Thus, 
much however may be alleged in behalf of colleges, 
which can hardly be said of other modes of culture, 
that they have made many a man respectable who, but 
for his learning, would have been a perfect common- 
place in the world. The few that have not been thus 
elevated by a liberal education may still be of some 
use to fill in the chinks of society ; just as a cypher has 
a value if placed at the right hand of a higher digit. 

It is desirable that literary institutions of every class 
should combine, as far as may be, the theoretical with 
the practical in their instructions. There is a world of 
pretence in education, as in every thing else. Professors 
fancy that they have a certain dignity of erudition to 
maintain, and the authors of text-books conceive it 
necessary for them to keep up a certain conventional 
style of profundity ; and hence often arises a pedantry, 
imposing indeed to the uninitiated, but sadly unprofit- 
able to the student. If the parade that only serves to 
cover superficiality in the one, and the superfluity that 
is but a vehicle for dulness in the other, were fairly 
stripped off, half the stumbling blocks in the way 
of learners would be removed. The same fault runs 



of his calling from ignorance of other spheres of engagement, and with greater 
promise of success by reason of his superior k general discipline. The college there- 
fore is by no means antagonistic to the cultivation of special laleut in individuals, 
hut rather aids them iu filling thoir destined position the more securely and effec- 
tually. 



21 

through much of our didactic literature ; its point and 
edge are taken off by the attempt to sheathe it in pom- 
pous formula?, as if it were unscholarly to write or 
speak so that men of common sense can understand. 
The English were so long in taking Sebastopol chiefly, 
it is said, because every order and arrangement had to 
go through a tedious routine established by military 
usage. A little Yankee tact and directness would have 
cleared the Malakoff long before the impetuosity of the 
French opened to their allies a passage into it. It is 
high time that we fully shook off the " red-tape" sys- 
tem inherited from the same source in literary matters. 
The prejudice of the masses against the learned will 
never be entirely overcome till the latter practically 
acknowledge that the highest proof of merit in their 
efforts is to make themselves intelligible to the ordi- 
nary mind. The shell of science needs to be cracked, 
that its kernel may be reached, not wrapped up in an 
extra rind of technical garrulity. The American mind 
demands more than Germanic lore or British solidity 
or Gallic vivacity as yet has singly afforded. We must 
have all these fused into one quick but continuous 
force, like the galvanic belt that girds the globe. The 
instructor, especially in our colleges, should have so 
complete a mastery of his subject, and so clear and im- 
mediate a process of communication, as to be able to 
transfer at once to the apprehension of his pupils the 
gist of the matter needed to elucidate each point, with- 
out the lumber that by-gone forms have piled around 
it. This, while conveying the largest amount of real 
information, will at the same time most effectually de- 
velop the student's own mental resources and stimulate 
his faculties : it will reproduce the old Athenian acu- 
men, a spirit more than any other akin with the genius 
of our own Commonwealth. In short, we want " Young 
America" in the recitation room, as well as upon the 
outer theatre of life. 



22 

The definition of education thus proposed and briefly- 
illustrated, affords a test of true ■ scholarship. This 
consists not so much in the amount or variety of the 
information amassed, as in the accuracy and dexterity 
of the mental operations or habits formed by its acqui- 
sition. A man may therefore be very learned, like 
Adam Clarke or Parkhurst, without much real scholar- 
ship ; or he may be a brilliant scholar, like Everett, 
without immense attainments. The object of a liberal 
education should be to form the latter character, while 
imparting a sufficient fund of knowledge to enable the 
scholar to investigate or converse intelligently upon 
any topic embraced in what is known as the circle of 
polite literature. Both these results every college 
should effect, and any thing short of this is in so far a 
failure of its due object. Whatever is beyond, if it 
still pertain to the domain of general literature, is 
appropriate to the office of the University ; if to pro- 
ficiency in any special department, it belongs to pro- 
fessional study. This last, I may observe, is specially 
befitting the position of a professor in an institution of 
learning, who should therefore be afforded sufficient 
leisure to push his investigations farther and still far- 
ther into the fields of research ; and as a stimulus to 
these, as well as a means of bringing their results be- 
fore the public, he should be allowed, if not expected, 
to be engaged in the preparation of text-books and 
other literary productions. The world owes most of 
its knowledge to such laborers, and intelligent directors 
of any scholastic institute will be ready to furnish their 
instructors every reasonable facility and encourage- 
ment of this character within their power, for the 
promotion of science in general, Avere it but for the 
sake of the honor and efficiency that thereby accrue to 
their own institution. In fine, while it is required that 
the collegiate scholar should not be ignorant upon any 
branch of modern science, physical or metaphysical, 



23 

(including in the latter philology, mathematics and 
ethics.) it is essential that he have acquired those habits 
of application, discrimination and taste, without which 
he is still a booby, however erudite, or a coxcomb, 
however fluent. Genius itself will not make amends 
for the lack of any of these elements, but will ofttimes 
the rather serve to render the defect the more glaring. 
"What avails the piercing eye of the eagle that could 
brave the sun, if his clipped wings tie him down to 
earth ; or who trembles at the lion's earthquake roar, 
when his cage bars make his strength the sport of the 
gaping throng ? 

The civilized world has never been destitute of 
schools, to which may ultimately be traced all its social 
culture and improvement. The Egyptian temples were 
the earliest depositories of learning, and the priests 
were not more the ministers of religion than the devo- 
tees and conservators of science, such as it then was. 
Moses, who afterwards embodied the same distinction 
of a learned caste in the Levitical order, was not the 
only one who became versed in all the lore of Egypt ; 
thither repaired, as to the Germany of ancient times, 
every one who wished to perfect himself in such know- 
ledge as then existed. Thales and Pythagoras, the 
founders of two of the earliest sects of Grecian phi- 
losophy, are known to have derived important hints, to 
say the least, from the Egyptian mysteries, into which 
the latter was at great pains to be thoroughly initiated ; 
while a large, perhaps the most important part of the 
writings of Herodotus, " the father of history,"' consists 
of his travels and observations in that country. The 
sculptured monuments of the valley of the Xile attest 
this ancient pre-eminence in literary pursuits, which 
continued to distinguish the nation down to the burn- 
ing of the famous library of Alexandreia, and Egyptolo- 
gy is still one of the most interesting branches of study. 
It is curious to observe the same connection between 



24 

science and religion in the celebrated institution of the 
Magi among the Persians and Babylonians, which was 
historically the next great school of antiquity, and 
which, little as its details have reached modern times, 
had the honor of being the first to ascertain and wel- 
come the advent of the world's Redeemer. Of Athens 
as a seat of learning, I have already spoken. Its Porch 
and Academy have been the very titles of educational 
institutes ever since, and the various schools of philoso- 
phy of which it was the focus are familiar to every 
student. The Greek intellect, sharpened, strengthened, 
polished by their influence, has made the history and 
literature of that small city immortal. Victorious 
Rome was content to become her pupil and copyist. 
To this day the productions of her poets, historians, 
philosophers and orators have remained the standard 
of all just criticism, and their names the very syno- 
nymes of perfection in the world of letters. There is 
little in modern books, except what is due to the Bible 
or to the discoveries of physical science, that may not 
find its original in the Greek Classics. The dark ages, 
as they. are called, were not without their schools; 
the monasteries were not merely the abodes of asceti- 
cism, but rather the colleges of the times, and the 
monks were the chief instructors of youth in the lib- 
eral arts. The Caliphs of Bagdad and the Saracens of 
Spain were also eminent patrons of learning. Algebra 
bears to this day the name of its Arabic origin, and 
modern chemistry is the offspring of mediaeval alchemy. 
The educational zeal of the Reformers I need not 
allude to. The glory and strength of Protestantism 
consist in its spread of intelligence. Of late years the 
Sunday-School has been added to its schemes of in- 
struction. The Pilgrim Fathers erected the school- 
house beside the church, and our national public school 
system is the pride of their descendants. In no land, 
not even in Prussia, where education is compulsory, 



25 

are the people more thoroughly committed to the policy 
of schools than in this republic ; and in none of its 
states has this plan been more liberally organized than 
in our own, the metropolis of which has set a magnifi- 
cent example of even collegiate instruction, afforded 
gratuitously to her citizens. The tax for the Free 
Academy is regarded as legitimate as that for the 
Croton Water. 

I hare no share in the apprehensions of some, that 
we are establishing too many colleges in this country ; 
the more the better, provided they are well endowed. 
The number of students always increases with the facil- 
ities for study, and observation proves that if a college 
is not at hand, they will be obliged in most cases to 
content themselves with a lower degree of education ; 
the expense and inconvenience are usually too great, if 
it be located at a distance, while its presence in the 
midst of a community is a continual incentive to the 
youth to avail themselves of its privileges. It is Yale 
College that has made New-Haven the Athens of 
America, and the proximity of Harvard University has 
no doubt contributed very materially to the literary 
eminence of Boston. .Troy has already gained an 
enviable celebrity for her schools ; and she only needs 
the successful influence of her University to complete 
her character for intelligence as well as enterprise. I 
might add, as a consideration not likely to be slighted 
by shrewd business men, that the influx of students 
from neighboring regions which a superior institution 
creates, brings a large accession of influence and activ- 
ity — and money too. The five hundred or more stu- 
dents of Yale College, spending each on an average, 
probably not less than five hundred dollars a year there 
for board, tuition and incidentals, add at least, $250,000 
to the cash income of the city. I presume the Trojans 
would have no objection to divide a quarter of a million 
yearly among them. It woidd soon pay back, with a 



26 

handsome ancl permanent interest the investment re- 
quired to put the University on an ample basis. As to 
the excessive multiplication of colleges in this State, I 
don't believe a word of it. Look at Germany : in that 
small country are crowded about as many full univer- 
sities, with their score and more of professorships, all 
in successful operation, as we have puny colleges in the 
whole United States ; to say nothing of the large num- 
ber of German gymnasia, which are themselves equal to 
nearly any of our colleges. Little New-England alone 
has eleven colleges, including two full universities, and 
they rather help than interfere with one another ; stu- 
dents come there from all parts of the Union, because 
it is the land of colleges, which have diffused a literary 
atmosphere that can hardly be found anywhere else. 
The Empire State can easily sustain eight colleges, 
scarcely one of which has yet attained the rank of a 
full university. The valley of the Hudson deserves to 
be represented more distinctively than it can be by 
either of the three located at its mouth ; what section 
of the state can be found more worth}^ to contain one 
that shall be a university in fact as well as in name 1 
If the public spirit of Troy shall' prove, as it now prom- 
ises, commensurate to the honor, there is nothing to 
prevent her securing such an institution for herself. 
No one must imagine that such a result can be brought 
about without large, united and continued effort. The 
funds already realized and pledged for this purpose, 
although in themselves a noble sum, are by no means 
sufficient for the permanent maintenance of a college, 
much less of a university ; at least as much more must 
be secured to render the design successful. The proper 
endowment is the practical test as to whether the Troy 
University is needed or not. Upon the prompt liberal- 
ity of the citizens of this immediate vicinity will mainly 
depend the answer to this question. " The gods help 



27 

them that help themselves," and our neighbors are very 
apt to act upon the same maxim.* 

* It may not be inappropriate here to state that the plan of the Troy University 
embraces in its collegiate course the practical features of the American college sys- 
tem, by "which a thorough drill in the classics and mathematics is secured by daily 
recitations, and a sufficient acquaintance with the scientific, philosophical and 
a'Sthetical branches is made through lectures and other exercises ; while at the same 
time the Scientific Course affords to those students whose time and object are more 
limited a more direct, although but partially literary, preparation for the practical 
affairs of life. The University Course, which properly succeeds these, and is con- 
ducted by means of lectures on the higher principles of science, literature and art, 
will enable those who wish to prosecute more thoroughly the subjects elementarily 
treated in the under- graduate career with all the a 1 vantages peculiar to the German 
University system. In addition to these facilities, it is in contemplation to establish 
special schools for professional study, under the same charter and on the same 
grounds, but each with separate buildings, trustees, funds and faculty, (the President 
©f the University forming a common link to secure uniform eo-operatton.) for those 
who have the learned professions (technically so called) in view, namely — Law, 
Medicine and Theology. These, with the University Course of Philosophy, will 
constitute the full complement of the Arts, and will include all the advantages of 
the English University system. I venture to suggest that if the Rensselaer Insti- 
tute, which has long attained the highest rank as a Scientific School, in the city of 
Troy, wete combined as an additional feature of this higher department, it would 
uotonly form an admirable supplement to the scheme of education thus proposed, 
but greatly enhance the symmetry and efficiency, not to say extent, of its educational 
influence, without in the least compromising its high character or internal admin- 
istration. The whole programme thus delineated forms a complete and compacted 
series of institutions fliat cannot fail, sooner or later, to constitute a most powerful 
focus of light and centre of attraction to the ambitious youth of "our land. 

Nothing commensurate with this threefold development of advanced education has 
heretofore been attempted in this country. The separate professional schools of Vale 
and Harvard, and the post-graduate departments of Columbia and Union, are each 
but parts of the scheme here proposed. If, as will probably soon be found to be both 
advantageous and practicable, some of the studies of the under-graduate course were 
made elective, by the partial substitution of modern for ancient languages, of the 
New-Testament and Hebrew for classic authors, and of advanced science and litera- 
ture for the more abstruse mathematics, so as to reduce the four years to three for 
such as intend to lake the University or Professional course in addition, the whole 
range of topics might be covered by diligent students without any material omission 
in five years' time, especially if the requirements for admission into the Freshman 
class are maintained at their proper standard. This would bring a higher point of 
education than has yet been possible for American youth, entirely within their 
reach ; and would form an era in the College s\ 7 stem of this country. We hope, at 
no distant day, to affordsuch facilities and attractions for students, and in so feasible 
a form, that none shall be obliged to forego the highest culture for lack of time and 
means, or resort to foreign lands for "want of an opportunity at home. 

Another loading feature in the founding of the Troy University, upon which it 
seems proper to make at least a passing remark, is its entire freedom from sectarian- 
ism. While it is the clearly recognised duly of the Church, with the aid of the State, 
to provide for and superintend the education of youth, yet is there nothing in the 
branches usually embraced in an academic course that need elicit any denomina- 
tional peculiarities of sentiments or action. Accordingly this Institution, although 
under the particular charge and responsibility of the Methodists, (and every College 
in the land claims some branch of the Christian Church as its special patron.) has 



28 



I have spoken of scholastic education in general, as 
a theme appropriate to the present occasion ; I trust 
I may be indulged in a few words respecting the 
branch of instruction with which I have been specially 
entrusted in this institution. Of the importance of 
Biblical Literature among collegiate studies, I need 
say nothing here ; the fact of its incorporation as a 
distinct chair in the course proposed by the Troy Uni- 
versity, is sufficiently significant on that head : I can 
only wish that the responsibility of its duties had 
devolved upon a more able incumbent. I deem it not 
inappropriate to give brief utterance to some of the 
sentiments that have actuated me to attempt their 
discharge. 

The title of the professorship assigned me implies 
that my principal text-book is to be the Bible. It will 
probably strike some as an anomaly that a layman 
should undertake an office which usually*devolves upon 
the clergy. I might defend my choice of this field of 
labor by citing the similar pursuits of Dr. Kitto and 
Chevalier Bunsen ; but I prefer a direct statement of 
the views that have induced me to devote myself to its 
culture. It appears to me that the community has 
usually mistaken the great prime object of revelation. 
We hear in almost every address in the Bible cause, 
arguments used implying that its circulation is intend- 
ed and calculated to produce the conversion of those 

nevertheless secured, with a degree of cordiality hitherto unprecedented in similar 
enterprises, the co-operation of leading momhers of the various evangelical denomi- 
nations, numbering among its trustees and faculty representatives from the Pres- 
byterians, Episcopalians and Baptists. This combination, -while it undoubtedly will 
often call for the exercise of forbearance and Christian courtesy among the legal 
custodians and literary conductors of the undertaking, is at the same time an ele- 
ment of power, socially as well as ecclesiastically, if rightly managed, that must 
ensure a wider scope and influence to all its operations. The fact is significant of the 
catholic spirit, of the age, and is also eminently auspicious of the enlarged efliciency 
and success which result from concert of action and a mutual balance of otherwise 
one-sided views and tendencies. 



29 

into whose hands it is put. The irreligion of individ- 
uals and families is attributed to their destitution of 
the Holy Scriptures, and colporteurs are provided for 
the purpose of furnishing every man, woman and child 
throughout the land with a copy, in the hope that it will 
be the instrument of leading them to a saving knowl- 
edge of the truth. Now all this effort in the multipli- 
cation and distribution of the Bible is no doubt well in 
itself, and a commendable exercise of Christian liber- 
ality ; for much good is doubtless thereby done in 
various ways, and in some instances the copies thus 
circulated appear to have been the means of reviving 
early religious impressions, and to have powerfully 
seconded other spiritual influences that eventuated in 
a decided change of moral character : but I apprehend 
that if the enterprise is induced and sustained by the 
hope of thereby directly effecting the regeneration or 
even reformation of the recipient of the Scriptures, we 
are acting under a false impression, and shall fail of 
our object. I have yet to learn of an authentic instance 
in which the simple perusal of the Bible, without pre- 
paratory and directive influences, has changed any one's 
religious sentiments, awakened his moral convictions 
or enabled him to attain the peace of a believer. I 
know that cases by the score are cited in Bible reports 
and anniversaries, as well as elsewhere, that seem and 
are intended to support such a conclusion : but the col- 
lateral forces that intensified the spiritual movement 
and directly brought on the soul-crisis, are either kept 
wholly out of view or assigned an inadecpiate share in 
the effect. Far be it from me to derogate a particle 
from the honor due the written word of God : I prize 
it infinitely above everv other book, and count it a 
privilr^r : : spend my days in exploring and elucidat- 
ing its sacred contents ; but I am not therefore disposed 
to enhance its importance by unsound arguments, nor 
to make it usurp the proper sphere of any other legiti- 



30 

mate institution of Christianity. Novel as the position 
may seem to many,* I invite a candid consideration of 
the opinion which I cannot but avow, that the simple 
reading of the naked text of Scripture, in our own or 
any other version, or even in the original itself, without 
any note, comment or person at hand to expound, direct, 
discriminate and apply the truth, has scarcely been 
and probably cannot be the actual means of leading a 
soul out of the bondage of sin.f The saving truth is 

* Since this sentiment was uttered, — which I have heard was immediately con- 
demned as heretic-ally untrue by some of my theological friends, and as warmly pro- 
nounced to be orthodox by others, — I have met with an extended vindication of the 
same view in the pages of the " Journal of Sacred Literature" 18.34, April No., p. 
7 — 10; July No., p. !J22. The remarks (by Rev. Dr. Burgess, the editor,) are so apt 
to my design that I quote a portion of them : " It is not our purpose to dwell on the 
causes which led to the adoption of this novel principle of action {that of printing 
the Bible without note or comment for circulation among the common people] on 
the part of the [British and Foreign] Bible Society, or to justify or blame what 
perhaps in tho circumstances was inevitable. We wish rather to call attention to 
a mode of thinking in relation to the Scriptures, which has accompanied the Society 
in its course, if it has not been created by it. Tho old doctrine, as far as we are 
aware, was that tho Scriptures were part of a system, deriving their efficacy from 
their keeping their place in it, and being used according to its laws; the new ono 
claimed for the Bible itself an independent standing, and treated it as sufficient for 
the conversion as well as the edification of mankind. In other words, before the 
epoch we are speaking of, [that of the rise of special societies for the circulation of 
the Bible,] the divine records were inseparably connected with oral teaching, and 
accompanied and assisted the preachers of the Gospel ; "but since then, they have 
been looked upon in many cases as adequate in their solitariness for all the pur- 
poses which Christianity contemplates. We do not affirm that the new theory has 
ever been broadly stated or acknowledged, but it has been extensively acted upon, 
and therefore has had a powerful influence. The thinking and phraseology of a 
very large portion of the Christian public has been imperceptibly moulded by this 
idea, and certainly many deeds of Christian benevolence proceed on a presumption 
of its entire truthfulness. The circulation of the Bible is often spoken of as identi- 
cal with the spread of Christianity ; its price has been talked of as the moral 
thermometer or scale by which it influence is to be tested ; and the shipment of 
vast numbers to foreign shores has been estimated as little less than an evangelical 
inroad upon the powers of darkness. Every now and then some new phase of this 
idea startles the public, and calls for some energetic action." In short, the popu- 
lar veneration for the word of God is in great danger of degenerating into mere 
book worship. 

\ Whatever may be thought of the doctrine here advanced, in its extreme applica- 
tion, it will yet probably not be disputed by any that the Christian church has 
always acted upon its assumption for all practical purposes, inasmuch as the conver- 
sion of mankind has never been left wholly to the written word of God without his 
spoken message attending it; and it cannot be denied that in the vast majority of 
oases persons attribute their conversion, (so far as external instrumentality is con- 
cerned,) to the living minister or private Christian. Whether therefore a few 
peculiar instances of solitary conversion by means of the Bible alone, can be substan- 
tiated or not, (and indeed it would be difficult to find a case of total disconnection 



31 

indeed there, all of it and in perfection ; but there is so 
much of it, and it is so combined with historical, doc- 
trinal and practical difficulties, that the uninitiated 
mind, with the additional embarrassment of a depraved 
heart and wrong previous habits of thought, would 
never, I believe, without some other external assistance, 
be able to discern it in that distinct and condensed 
form which is essential to regenerating faith. Those to 
whom the messages of the prophets were originally 
addressed, complainingly exclaimed, "Doth he not speak 
parables ?" and our Savior declared of his own auditors, 
" Hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." 
The Ethiopian treasurer on the road to Gaza, reading 
Isaiah's almost historical prophecy of the Redeemer's 
passion, when Philip inquired, " Understandest thou 
what thou readest V could only reply, " How can I 
except some man should guide me ?" Of course the 
helping influences of the Holy Spirit are supposed to 
be present in every ca^e ; but its office is to enable the 
person to lay hold of the atonement as well as feel his 
need of it, after the intellect has apprehended it, — not 
to impart the truth directly and without regard to the 
ordinary process of enlightenment. An instance strik- 
ingly in point is that of John "Wesley, as he landed in 
London, still groaning for deliverance from his burden 
of sin, after his American mission. He had gone to 
Georgia to convert the Indians, and he returned with 
the conviction that he was himself unconverted. In 
the graphic language of the forth-coming history of 
Methodism, "Here was a man of healthful tempera- 
ment, of rare intelligence, of pre-eminent logical acute- 
ness,-who had read every line of Holy Scripture in the 
very language in which prophet or apostle had penned 
it ; and yet, with the Bible in his hand and an anguish 

from all other religions influences,) the position assumed above remains so generally 
true as to warrant the distinction based upon it, and moreover to deserve greater 
attention than has usually been given to it. 



32 

of earnestness in his heart, he stumbles before the most 
important and most simple truths of revelation."* The 
author of this description is doubtless correct in de- 
scribing the difficulty in this case to preconceived 
notions derived from education ; but the same is true 
of any case, for every one, however brought up, even 
a heathen, has his own previous system of belief ; and 
if the careful religious training of Wesley was still no 
warrant of correct views, who can hope for exemption 
from some kind of error sufficient to blind the eyes 
even while poring over the sacred pages ? It was not 
through his own perusal or even study of the Scriptures 
themselves, but through their exposition by others, that 
he at last caught a view of the way of faith. While 
listening to a layman reading Luther's preface to the 
Epistle to the Romans among an evening assembly of 
Moravians in Aldersgate-street, he " felt his heart 
strangely warmed " with the hitherto unexperienced 
glow of divine love. A spark from the embers of the 
Reformation kindled the flame which spread from his 
breast throughout Methodism, — a system to which 
Henderson in Buck's Dictionary has the assurance to 
assert that Whitefield would probably have given birth, 
had the Wesleys never existed ! For twenty-five years 
the founder of Wesleyanism had been constantly seek- 
ing personal religion with a devotion that has had few 
parallels, and with every facility that the volume of 
revelation could afford ; but he attained it at length 
through the instrumentality of an humble and even 
indirect form of the preaching of that word, from the 
lips and pen of those who had themselves experienced 
its " power unto salvation." His conversion was but an 
illustration of the method which the Scriptures them- 
selves prescribe as that appointed by heaven for this 
end : " For after that in the wisdom of God, the world 

* History of Methodism, by Rev. Abel Stevens, LL. D , Now York, 1858-9, vol i, 
p. 85. 



33 

by [natural} -wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by 
the [so-called] foolishness of peeachixg to save them 
that believe." The direct and personal communication 
of experimental truth to the judgment and conscience 
of the listener or reader, will be found in every instance, 
when carefully analyzed, to be the simple and only 
human instrumentality really efficacious in this result, 
much as we are disposed to overlook it and attribute 
the effect to what we may deem more suitable or 
worthier means. To this office, the most truly great 
and responsible, as I believe, that a mortal can fill, I 
make no pretension; I confess, I dare not aspire to it. 
The usefulness I seek lies in another path, which may 
however ultimately conduct to the same general issue. 
Y\ nat then is the legitimate function of the Bible in 
this important work or in the religious renovation of 
humanity"? I cannot answer better than in the com- 
prehensive words of the Book itself : " All Scripture, 
being given by inspiration of God, is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect. . 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Mark, its 
purpose is not mainly nor directly the conversion of 
sinners, but the establishment of the believer in per- 
sonal piety, and the equipment of the minister for his 
sphere ; it covers the details of Christian life and use- 
fulness, rather than the point of induction into these. 
' The introduction into a, religious career, although 
included in its directions, is almost incidental and so 
involved in the mass of other and seemingly discrepant 
matter, that the novitiate himself is often puzzled in his 
attempt to interpret and apply the multiform instruc- 
tions. If the object of revelation had been simply or 
chiefly to present a guide-book to the way of life, or to 
furnish a system of theology, it would have taken the 
form of a compendious manual like a modern catechism, 
and might, have dispensed with the bulky introduction 



KEEL* EGRESS 



34 




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of history, the dry abstracts of genealogy, the verbose 
effusions of poetry, the dim visions of prophecy, and 
the extended epistolary correspondence, which the 
sacred volume contains ; but all these have their im- 
portant uses in furnishing the Christian mind and 
pulpit, although of course they greatly complicate the 
task of understanding and applying the divine oracles. 
Hence arises the need of interpretation, an office co-or- 
dinate with that of preaching, but which few who 
earnestly devote themselves to the latter can have leis- 
ure to prepare themselves adequately to fill. To this 
humble task I desire to consecrate my energies, and it 
is the hope of subserving this cause that brings me into 
your midst. May it appear in the great day of divine 
awards, that some honor is due to him who lays, though 
deep under the ground of verbal and exegetical criti- 
cism, the firm foundations of the spiritual temple, as 
well as to him who, on the open walls of Zion, brings 
to its place the top-stone with the jubilant shouts of 
grace. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS^ 

ii i inn iii ii nil in 

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